This invention relates to shielded electrical connectors and in particular to shielded surface mount electrical connectors having compliant contacts and a barbed boardlock integral with the shield.
Shielded electrical connectors are known. Examples may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,842,552 and 4,493,525. Boardlocks have been employed to temporarily secure electrical connectors in a final position on a circuit board until the board passes through a soldering process and the connector is more permanently, all be it removably, secured to the board by the resulting solder joints formed in the soldering process. Shielded connectors with a boardlock integral with the shield are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,842,554 and 4,842,555. Connectors with compliant contacts are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,528 and a shielded connector with compliant contacts are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,911. However, the shielded connectors with compliant contacts have had a separate boardlock to secure the connector to a printed circuit board. For example, the connector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,911 has been used with the top actuated boardlock disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,219 which requires tooling in addition to stuffing equipment to place the connector on a printed circuit board.
The prior art boardlocks integral with the shield of a shielded connector would not suffice as a boardlock for a connector with compliant contacts. For example, if the boardlocks integral with the shield of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,842,554 and 4,842,555 were employed in an electrical connector having compliant contacts, the boardlock disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,555 would not hold the connector housing base against the circuit board on which the connector was mounted as the spring action of the compliant contacts would push upwardly, lifting the base of the connector housing off the circuit board. To employ the boardlock disclosed in FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,554 also would not suffice to hold the base of the connector housing against the circuit board. The boardlock is resiliently deflected as it is received in an aperture in the circuit board and resiles somewhat as it emerges from the aperture at the lower surface of the circuit board. With the base of the connector housing in its final position seated on the circuit board with the base thereof engaging the upper surface of the circuit board, the boardlock is positioned in the aperture with an inclined surface engaging the periphery of the aperture at the lower surface of the circuit board. The boardlock acts as a spring with the inclined surface engaging the periphery of the aperture to provide a downward force to hold the base of the connector housing against the upper surface of the circuit board. In the application disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,554, there is no continuous upward force to counter the action of the boardlock.
To employ the boardlock disclosed in FIG. 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,554 with a surface mount connector having compliant contacts would not suffice as a boardlock because the downward force provided by the boardlock would be opposed by the upward force of the compliant contacts with the result that the housing would assume a position where the upward and downward forces balance. Under these conditions, the inclined surface boardlock would not be employed as it could not assure that the base of the connector housing was seated against the upper surface of the circuit board.
It would be desirable to have a boardlock integral with the shield of a shielded surface mount connector having compliant contacts that could assure that once placed on a circuit board the base of the connector housing would remain seated against the upper surface of the circuit board until more permanently secured thereto by solder.